a possible calming influence, tomorrow, the prime minister of egypt will visit gaza saturday, the prime minister of turkey, hoping by their very presence it will calm things down, making it harder for hamas to fire rockets and making it harder for israel to attack. reportedly, three children were killed in an israeli bomb attack. >> we'll take whatever calming influence we can get in this still new conflict. martin fletcher in tel aviv. and nbc has been able to be in gaza city today. he was able to file this report a short time ago as this conflict you're about to see took on much more of the appearance of a shooting war. >> reporter: well, you can hear the sounds of the explosions behind me, brian. it is an indication that the israeli operation is continuing well into the night. and that really is what has the people here very much anxious, very much nervous. it has been like this for the past several hours. there is no indication it will let up. in fact, they're bracing for the possibility of a ground invasion in the coming days. it has sent shock waves throughout the people, as the p